How to Create a Burner Account on Ashley Madison (And Other Sketchy Sites)

By
Evan Dashevsky22 Jul 2015, 5:15 a.m.

Don't do anything on the Internet that you would be ashamed of in real life. You will get caught. If Home Depot and the federal government can have their digital security systems compromised, then little old you on your little old PC will be no match for a dedicated hacker.

This Internet truism was vividly on display this week when the cheating website Ashley Madison had its system compromised by a group calling itself "The Impact Team," which is currently threatening to publish the site's vast database of unhappily married men and women.

For their sake, hopefully these vow-dodging patrons of Ashley Madison took some commonsense steps to mask their true identities, (e.g. not using their real names or email addresses). If these basic precautions were not taken, then I can only assume these aspiring infidelitators wanted to be caught.

The takeaway is this: Don't do anything on the Internet (like advertise your desire for extramarital hook-ups) that you wouldn't do IRL. However, for those out there are absolutely compelled to get their sketch on—and, let us reiterate: there is nosuchthing as 100 percent online security—there are a few steps you can take to mitigate your exposure:

1) Delete your local Internet history

I hope this one goes without saying. It's probably a good idea to clear your history even if you aren't doing anything particularly sketchy, just so you can keep the marketers and potential identity thieves at bay. For more, read our primer on clearing your Internet history on any browser.

2) Don't re-use photos of yourself on your sketchy service

Everyone has select group of favourite images of themselves. These are the photos that have been our Facebook profile pics for years, and we always use to represent ourselves on various sites. And there-in lies the problem—images are as searchable as text.

That means if a nefarious person comes across one of your favourite and oft-used photos in a sketchy corner of the Web, they could easily find where that photo exists elsewhere, like your Facebook account or personal website. It doesn't even matter if you hide your name as Carlos Danger or whatever—your photo can give you away. And here's the even scarier part: In the not-crazy-future, any photo of you might be used to easily identify you, even if your face is partially hidden.

3) Mask your money

There are a few ways to transfer money anonymously-ish online using (often sketchy) cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. But one of the most straight-forward options may be to use a virtual credit card—these are disposable "burner" credit card numbers which you can use to purchase things online without handing your credit card number over to third-party vendors. They're a cool tool you might want to use anyway just to protect yourself from hackers after your credit card number.

Most major banks offer some form of virtual credit service, however they still necessitate that you use your billing address (i.e. your home address) when purchasing things online. This doesn't really work if you're trying to shield your identity. Fortunately (?), there are ways around this problem that don't necessitate creating a new credit card and coordinating with a friend you really trust.

For example, a service like Abine Blur can create some separation between you and the money you spend online. For a fee. The company offers a free tier that will allow you to do things like create fake email addresses, but for $39 per year Abine allows you to create a "masked credit card" (Blur's version of a virtual credit card).

In brief, these masked cards are burner card numbers that are linked to your real credit card—but the third-party site will have no access to your personal information (though Abine will have all your data stored—so, just hope they don't ever get hacked). A masked card lets you use any name you want (e.g. Joe Smith, Kevin Bacon, Barack Bush—go nuts), and for the billing address, you just use Abine's address in Boston. The cost on your real credit card will just show up as "Abine" on your card statement.

Of course, if you were already on Ashley Madison and didn't take any of these precautions, there's not much you can do. So, one last time, the moral of the story is this: Don't be sketchy on the Internet.

About the Author

Evan Dashevsky is a features editor with PCMag and host of our live interview series The Convo. He can usually be found listening to blisteringly loud noises on his headphones while exploring the nexus between tech, culture, and politics. Follow his thought sneezes over on the Twitter (@haldash) and slightly more in-depth diatribin' over on the Facebook. See Full Bio